Pac-Man Ghost Zone
Pac-Man Ghost Zone is a cancelled PlayStation game that was in development by Namco Hometek. It was planned to be released in November 1997.[1] Story The latest arcade game is crowded, and a child is unable to play. The crowd pushes him away, telling him to "go play Pac-Man". He goes up to the Pac-Man machine and insults it; this angers Blinky and Inky, who then suck the kid into the machine and transform him into Pac-Man. Gameplay Pac-Man Ghost Zone is a 3D platformer similar to Super Mario 64. Pac-Man collects dots while avoiding electronic arcade machine parts like Transformers, Jumpers, and Capacitors. It is cited to have poor "tank" controls, which negatively effected many early 3D platformers (such as Bubsy 3D). Development and Cancellation (Note: This summary comes from a combination of various people who worked on Pac-Man Ghost Zone. Many of their stories differ, some being positive and others negative. There may be inconsistencies in it as a result.) In 1996, Namco (of Japan) was demonstrating several projects to Namco Hometek, a U.S.-based division of the company. Hometek was commissioned to develop one out of eight games; among them was Pac-Man Ghost Zone. A Namco employee asked Hometek which project they would like to choose - after making their answer (an RPG featuring Namco's classic characters), he responded "No. Do Pac-Man." Despite making Hometek work on the Pac-Man entry instead of what they wanted to do, Namco was very nervous about letting them develop a Pac-Man title. Hometek was told they could not use the "real" Pac-Man character, so Japan could be told "You are not really playing Pac-Man." As a solution, the game would feature a kid getting sucked into a Pac-Man arcade machine, being turned into Pac-Man. It is stated that many developers who were working on Ghost Zone did not have much experience in developing games, let alone 3D titles. Several employees didn't have interest in video games at all. To make matters worse, Namco would not allow Hometek to hire more employees with better experience, as they had the maximum amount of workers Japan would allow them to, nor could they fire anyone without Namco's approval. Fairly early in development, Namco asked for a demo of Ghost Zone to be presented to their Japanese offices. It was demonstrated to Masaya Nakamura, the then-president of Namco; he was extremely displeased, screaming out of anger before storming out of the room. Nakamura was so angry that he wanted to not only cancel the Ghost Zone project, but close down Namco Hometek entirely. A few other Namco employees later convinced Nakamura to let the project continue. More drama occurred as time went on. Namco slashed the development schedule of Ghost Zone in half, making the game have to be rushed as a result. Employees were constantly being fired by Namco, in very rude and humiliating ways (most notably the R&D director, who was fired at a business lunch in public). In mid-1997, seemingly after another meeting with Nakamura, the game was fully cancelled. Namco requested the game be remade from scratch; from there, Ghost Zone evolved into Pac-Man World. Both games are entirely different however, and World shares very few similarities with Ghost Zone. Trivia * The title screen music used in Pac-Man World was featured in the E3 1997 demonstration of Pac-Man Ghost Zone. It is believed the music may be the only remnant of Ghost Zone content still found in Pac-Man World. * Early design documents label Blinky as Clyde, which may mark the origin of the Clyde and Blinky error. Gallery Screenshots Gz1.png Gz2.png Gz3.png Artwork Ghost-zone-restoration-cover.png|Prototype box art (restoration) Pac-Man-Ghost-Zone-Image1.png|Incomplete final box art (?) Ghost-zone-press-kit-2.jpg|Flyer from an E3 1997 press kit. Ghost-zone-press-kit-1.jpg|Flyer from an E3 1997 press kit. External links *Early prototype build gameplay (PlayStation Museum) *Footage from E3 1997 (TheNumenFromPacLand) *[https://www.unseen64.net/2010/11/14/pac-man-ghost-zone-psx-cancelled/ Pac-Man Ghost Zone on Unseen64] *[http://web.archive.org/web/20100213090136/http://playstationmuseum.com/Games/GRAVEYARD/pmgz/ Pac-Man Ghost Zone on PlayStation Museum (archive.org)] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20150819075005/http://awakengames.com/?p=740 Pac-Man Ghost Zone on Awaken Games (development information) (archive.org)] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20190422195734/http://awakengames.com/pac-man-ghost-zone Pac-Man Ghost Zone on Awaken Games (concept artwork) (archive.org)] References Category:Games Category:Cancelled Games Category:Pac-Man Games Category:Console Games Category:Platformers Category:Namco Games Category:Pac-Man World Series